The town has gained notoriety for its extreme living conditions that include its high rates of altitude sickness, pollution, poverty, murder, and sex trafficking, and as a result has sometimes been referred to as in Spanish as "ciudad sin ley del Perú," which means "lawless city of Peru.

"[4] La Rinconada is a populated center, within the jurisdiction of Ananea District, in San Antonio de Putina Province, Puno Department, Peru.

According to the May 2003 issue of National Geographic magazine, La Rinconada is 5,100 meters above sea level, thus making it the highest-elevated permanent settlement in the world.

[7] Some successful miners in La Rinconada have homes in Juliaca, which has municipal services and is 3,825 m (12,549 ft; 2.377 mi) above sea level.

The town has rainy summers and dry winters with a large diurnal variation seeing cool to cold days and freezing night time temperatures throughout the year, with snowfalls common.

[8] After extraction, the gold is refined from small vendors to large companies like Metalor Technologies, which is one of the worlds largest suppliers of precious metals In March 2018, "Metalor accepted more than 40 kilos of gold (worth about $1.7 million) from a company outside La Rinconada that customs officials said in a report later that year that they could not find at the listed address.

"[13] Metalor came under legal scrutiny by both the Peruvian and U.S. government for its involvement in illegal mining, exploitative labor practices, smuggling of gold, and drug gangs.

[20] An article states that in addition to the extreme altitude's climate and oxygen impacts, residents live a "harsh reality marked by the lacks of basic services, pollution and crime,"[4] citing that the settlement lacks clean water, sewage systems, and proper waste management, and noting that electricity only recently arrived in the 2000s, and that access to it still remains limited.

[24] In 2024, in response to the high crime rate, the Government of Peru, in coordination with the Trujillo Citizen Security Department, started taking action to adopt preventive measures and operations in an attempt to eradicate robberies and assaults, and improve pedestrian and resident safety.

The article states "Tests conducted on members of the local Carata community in 2018 by Peru’s ministry of health showed that more than 83.5 per cent had traces of heavy metal in their bodies."

[27] As a result of heavy metal polluted waters, much of Coata's residents have left, as the soil has become salinated and infertile, making it impossible for crop growth and raising livestock.

Uchiri stated that "[Miners] would enter the mine with a wet cloth that of course wasn’t a good filter, and many of them in the end died of silicosis.

[27] The town has also gained popularity online due to holding the record for being the highest settlement in the world along with its reputation of extreme living conditions and high crime.